Crossposted to rec.woodworking and rec.crafts.woodturning
Had an intersting experience over the past coupla weeks, and figured I'd share...
First some history: I bought a Powermatic 3520 lathe about 5 years ago (thats 3520 - not 3520A). It was one of the early sreies that had a few problems. Powermatic did a pretty good job dealing with them, except for one - the banjo was a royal PITA to move around. It kept getting stuck instead of sliding. Spent a few months dealing with thier customer suport, and ended up just dealing with this particualr problem. PITA to use, but they had dealt with other (bigger) problems, and I wasn't doing too much turning, so......
Fastforward to about 3 weeks ago. Picked up a Dewalt portable planer. Great machine, but it was missing the screws for the dust port. The port would more or less hang on for a bit, but was unstable, and just one more thing to watch out for when planing (I hate parts that bounce around). Called their customer support line on a Thursday, got hung up on a few times, but ended up talking to a person, and was assured that the screws were on thier way.
Because the planer was down, I decided to catch up on some turning (and test out Art Ransoms tool rests). The banjo finally pissed me off enough that I called Powermatic customer service again on Wednesday (6 days after I called dewalt). Spoke to thier front line support, got told that the warranty was way gone, but because it was a problem when it *was* under warranty, I should talk to the product manager. Got his phone #, he was on vacation for a week, but his voicemail pointed to another guy. Left *him* voicemail. Got a call back thursday, explained the history, and what the problem was, and he said he'd "look into it and get back to me" (I consider this a danger sign...). The next day (Friday), I got a call from a young lady who wanted to know my shipping address so they could send me a new Banjo....
About this time I realized that I hadn't heard back from Dewalt, but I was pretty busy, so I didn't get time to call them until the following Tuesday. Its been 12 days since the screws were "on thier way". It took 3 tries to get through (get the "press X system, walk through too many options, sit on hold for 5-10 minutes, and as soon as the person on the other end picks up, the line gets disconnected). Finally get a person, explain whats going on, and ask if theres a way to see what's up with the package. He starts out be telling me that *his* planer works fine without the screws, and that I shouldn't be having any problems. I explain that loose parts are not an option in my shop, and get put on hold. After a pretty good runaround, he says that the order was "put into the system" on the day after I called, but that because it was a Friday, it wasn't processed until Monday, and it took a little while to get orders packaged and shipped. If it was such a big deal, I should have requested overnight shipping. I pointed out that because the screw up was on thier end, I had sort of assumed that they would be doing their best to fix the situation as quickly as possible. I give him credit for not actually laughing out loud..... He claimed that they should arrive by Thursday, and if they didn't I should call him again, and he'd express mail me a set to arrive Friday. They did actually arrive Thursday, with a tuesday postmark. Coincidence? maybe, but I don't think so. so, it takes 2 weeks, and 2 phone calls (6-8 if you count the hold-and-drops) to get them to send something that should have been in the package in the first place.
I don't think I'll be buying any more dewalt products for a long time.
Powermatic has its problems, but they are responsive, and at least follow up. Dewalt is more like the old Ma Bell.....
YMMV
--JD